The singing top

Malaysia, situated in the heart of southeast Asia, is home to more than twenty million people, who belong to a number of diverse cultural groups, including the Malay, Dusun, Iban, Penan, Sungai, Dyak, and others. Until now, few tales from Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore have made their way into print in English. Renowned folklorist Margaret Read MacDonald has worked with archival material as well as with local storytellers to collect traditional tales from these people, including 15 tales from the ethnic peoples of Borneo. Organized broadly by region, and then by specific groups and themes,…